Departmental Responsibility for Overpayments

Step 1: Attempt to Prevent the Overpayment

Overpayments can be prevented if you identify the error before payment is distributed to the employee.

A Current Pay Adjustment (CPA) in PARIS or a Pay Stop in ANA can avoid the need to recover funds from an employee. Please be aware that a Pay Stop will prevent the employee from receiving payment for all jobs on that pay period. A Prior Underpayment Adjustment (PUA) will be required if any pay is due to the employee.

See Payroll Adjustment Processing for more information.

*These transactions prevent overpayments, so the unit will not be assessed the overpayment service fee. See below.

Step 2: Notify the Employee

Employing units should act as a liaison between UPB and the employee throughout the recovery process, ensuring that the employee understands the procedures for recovering the overpayment.

When one of your employees is overpaid, notify them as soon as possible since they must make repayment to the University of Illinois System. You may provide them with Repaying Payroll Overpayments - Guide for Employees so they will know what to expect.

Step 3: Make Corrections

Job Records

If a job record error is the cause of the overpayment, the department representative must submit a HR Front End (HRFE) transaction as required before the next job change cutoff date as published in the Payroll Schedule. This is crucial to prevent additional overpayments from occurring in the future.

C-FOAPALS on Overpayments Involving Sponsored Programs (Grants)

If an overpayment involves a grant from a restricted sponsored program, Federal agriculture, special state appropriations or any other fund that may change or close before recapture, the unit should follow this process:

1. Transfer the overpaid amount from the restricted funding source to an unrestricted FOAPAL by Performing a Labor Redistribution.
2. Wait until the next business day for the labor redistribution to post in Banner.
3. Notify UPB of the overpayment in ANA (see Step 4 below).
4. Complete GC-91 if sponsored project (grant) funds remain on the pay period overpaid. Submit to PI within 10 days.

Contact your local Sponsored Programs office if additional assistance is needed.

Step 4: Submit an Overpayment Adjustment transaction in ANA

Submit an Overpayment Adjustment transaction in ANA to initiate the recovery process, following the instructions in the Overpayment Job Aids.

Submit overpayment transactions as soon as you notify the employee, job records have been corrected, and after necessary labor redistributions are performed so recovery efforts can be successful.

If the unit is holding the paper check, indicate in the ANA comments, "Holding original payroll check and returning to UPB." Return the original check to UPB immediately with the completed Return Payroll Checks/Overpayment Remittance Form.

See the Overpayment Recovery Process.

Step 5: Pay the Overpayment Service Fee

Units are responsible for a 6% payroll service fee for all overpayment amounts recovered. These fees will be assessed monthly on the previous month's collection activity. The fee will be posted to the C-FOAPAL overpaid, or as indicated in the ANA transaction. The fee will be posted by an automated Journal Voucher (JV) process towards the beginning of each month. CPAs in PARIS and Pay Stop transactions in ANA will not be assessed the service fee since these transactions prevent overpayments.

Other posting considerations:

• Description on the JV transaction will be "Payroll Service Fee," and will identify the employee's University Identification Number (UIN) and Pay Period of the recovery.
• To transfer charges to a different FOAPAL, a JV will need to be initiated by the unit.
• Corrections to JV entries related to the payroll service fee will be limited to the current fiscal year only.
• The Overpayment Detail (HROVRPYMTD) report is available for viewing in Mobius View by the seventh of each month.

Service Fee Appeals:

Units may appeal service fee charges. The appeal must occur within the same fiscal year as the fee.

1. Contact UPB Customer Service. The customer service representatives will determine if the fee refund is allowable.
2. An option is available to meet with UPB management if an agreement cannot be reached with the customer service representative. The meeting will occur within 30 days of the request (except near the fiscal year end).
3. A decision regarding the refund will be rendered within 5 business days.
4. If approved, the fee will be refunded/reversed at the end of each month.